Valve is hoping indie developers use their platform sans publisher, in a tale of woe and trust

Have you heard of the game Paranautical Activity? It’s an incredible fast-paced FPS title based on the voxel engine by a little company called, Code Avarice. Steam is currently forcing the developer through the Greenlight process, despite it’s ties with publisher and media company, Adult Swim. Yes, that [adult swim], cable channel of amazing TV shows such as Robot Chicken, The Venture Brothers and NTSF:SD:SUV::.

Adult Swim has published games in the past, such as the Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law game with Capcom and apps such as Robot Unicorn Attack, but this would be the first full Steam game.

Adult Swim offered Code Avarice a chance to publish their rogue-like title FPS: Paranautical Activity in a deal that would have the former pay for publishing via Steam.

Valve, once seeing the game on their service, decided not to have the game and told the developer that since they started initially on Greenlight, they would end on Greenlight. All of this apart of an amazing twenty-minute interview with YouTube user, green9090, which can be seen below. Green interviewed the owners of Code Avarice, Mike Maulbeck and Travis Pfenning who explained the entire process in great detail.

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The devs admit that when Valve told them they “didn’t want to send the message that indies can seek out publishers to bypass Steam Greenlight” and this led them to redirect their marketing from working with Adult Swim back to pushing the game’s Greenlight campaign.

Valve’s Doug Lombardi was reached for comment on the situation and said, “We review Greenlight votes, reviews, and a variety of factors in the Greenlight process…Our message to indies regarding publishers is do it for your own reasons, but do not split your royalties with a publisher expecting an automatic ‘Yes’ on Greenlight.” Smart words from a Lombardi as the importance of Greenlight is hopefully for developers to release games that can be profitable on their own terms. Yes, it’s true that Valve does take a cut from almost every game on Steam, but why split it even further with a publisher.

Valve have always been helpful with Greenlight and indie devs, even letting them fund Alpha projects and Early Access betas for paying customers. Adult Swim have been reached for comment about Code Avarice but you can imagine their ties with Valve are good, considering the recent appearances of Adult Swim characters and iconography in games such as Team Fortress 2 and Poker Night at the Inventory 2.